The catastrophic flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has implications for 2023 in the way in which the community reacted. In a fearless and very daring move, a civil-society organization took the president and members of parliament to court, accusing them of being culpable for homicide by ignoring climate action. To imagine that someone can do that anywhere, let alone on a continent where there’s so much supposed vulnerability, is an indicator for the inherent strength and social capital and legal frameworks that can be leveraged. The threats on lives for doing that are very real. Taking a president to court for something like that is not an easy thing, but it’s a metric of where people are at when it comes to inactivity.
People are exhausted with so much talk, and the ones on the ground are now able to say, “Enough is enough, we’re going to take matters into our own hands.” In 2023, different countries are going to continue to